Ellington

Godfrey Morgan, the Jamaican native whose food delights JFP staffers more than any other, is fulfilling one of his (and our) dreams: He now has a restaurant downtown. On May 12 Godfrey's Take Away, A Taste of the Caribbean opened in the Merrill Lynch building, 111 E. Capitol Street, across from the parking garage. Godfrey's Take Away serves breakfast and lunch between 7:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. You can walk in, call in (949-3011), or fax in (949-6990) your orders. Two four-tops and 11 stools along the window-counter offer seating for those who want to walk in and sit a spell.

Among the breakfast yummies—Godfrey's pumpkin muffins and a Caribbean pastry called gizzadas, a buttery-sweet dough filled with fresh shredded coconut carmelized with walnuts. For those who cannot let go of their eggs-in-the-morning, Godfrey's makes omelets. If you get a cheese or cheese and mushroom or a mushroom omelet, for $5 you also get a biscuit, sausage patty and coffee. If you want your sausage cut up and put into one of those omelets, the $5 gets you just the biscuit and coffee on the side. Sounds fair to me. And there's cinnamon twists and a muffin-of-the-day. Lunch is a sort of Jamaican deli-cuisine, Godfrey's wife, Wanda, told me, with jerk chicken po'boys, jerk pork po'boys, spring rolls with jerk chicken and an assortment of salads. This downtown establishment is a dream come true for Chef Godfrey. Like British songstress Petula Clark told us back in 1964, "You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares and go downtown, things'll be great … no finer place for sure … everything's waiting for you downtown."

Monte's Steak & Seafood, 1855 Lakeland Drive in the Quarter, 362-8182. Now at this location (around the corner from the old Bruno's, RIP) for four-and-one-half months, Monte says they're serving the same menu but with more salads for summer—shrimp, chicken and spinach among the assortment. For outdoor dining, there's a patio courtyard, and on Friday and Saturday nights, the Delta Blues Boys play in the lounge.

Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers, out of Baton Rouge, serves—what else?—chicken you can eat with your fingers. But, according to whereyat.net, it's the sauce that'll keep you coming back for more. The local restaurant is at 202 East Layfair Drive in Flowood, alongside Lakeland Drive, 933-9713. And get this, the restaurant is named for founder Todd Graves' childhood dog, a yellow Labrador. He wanted to name the dog Raising Cain, but his sister thought the pooch was so sweet, he should be named Sugar Cane. Sis gave in as long as the dog's name was spelled C-A-N-E. A really big picture of the namesake—wearing sunglasses, no less—graces the front of the building.

Another new quick-service chicken restaurant opened in March in Jackson—Zaxby's Chicken Fingers and Buffalo Wings, 6330 Ridgewood Road, just up the hill from Sam's, 952-0662. This is a restaurant chain with a mission statement: to consistently create encore experiences that enrich lives, one person at a time. That's quite a mouthful for an eating establishment, isn't it? Fresh, flavorful chicken and sides prepared in a variety of ways and for a variety of tastes are the tactics Zaxby's reportedly uses in what could be called the Jackson metropolitan statistical area chicken-wars, what with these two new joints joining the chicken-chain ménage à trois of KFC, Popeye's and Church's. And don't forget Buffalo Wild Wings and Abner's or the finally-out-of-the-malls' Chick-fil-a.
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